software

How often do you hear that? I know, right? But honestly, Alienware’s customer service was amazing!

As I mentioned here, my computer has been acting up since I downloaded the April Windows 10 update. Yeah, I didn’t do it until June, but I wanted them to work out all of the bugs first.

Stop laughing.

I know. I’m so optimistic it hurts.

After the Microsoft Help Desk told me it was a hardware issue, and a trip to Geek Squad confirmed it was a hardware issue, we decided to call Alienware and see if they’d stand behind their product.

The computer is just over a year old, so technically out of the warranty period, but it’s one of their better models. I had opted for an Alienware as they’re known for quality. The laptop has never left my house, never been dropped, and I don’t eat near it.

I’ve also never come close to taxing the abilities of this machine as I’d bought it because I thought we’d start gaming again now that our kids were a little older.

Yeah, I know. You’re laughing again, aren’t you?

Still not funny.

Anyway, my husband called them. Yes, it’s my machine. But he’s also the one that took it to Geek Squad. For better or worse, help desks treat men differently than they do women. As we both wanted this solved as quickly as possible, he agreed to take the lead on it.

So, he called Alienware and told them what’s going on, then gave them all of the details of the computer. They said, yes, they’ve seen this before, and it was the Windows 10 update. The update broke the Tobii eye tracking software on my model of Alienware. This is what’s causing the issue, not a broken keyboard.

Uninstalling the Windows 10 update, which we had done, was not enough to “unbreak” what the update had done to my computer.

Because of course it wasn’t. Thanks Windows!

At least the update had. No joke. It was unusable.

As it’s a software issue, they could walk him through how to fix it.

At first, I thought it was too good to be true, but Alienware customer support walked him through how to deactivate the software even though he couldn’t really type anything. He then uninstalled the software completely as he now had control of my computer, and Alienware then directed him to where to get the fixed version.

At the end of the call, my computer worked beautifully.

I will not need to be without it for a month.

I did lose a weekend, but I think I can make that up and still be on track.